The Stroud family approached the teddy bear-covered bench of the 305th Juvenile District Court. Brothers David, 5, and Charlie, 3, were at the center of a family huddle, flanked by the advocates who helped make this moment a reality.

Judge Ken Molberg read off case numbers and spoke in legal terms neither boy could comprehend. But the brothers knew the importance of what was happening. They beamed at their new adoptive mom and dad and sisters.

“You’re ours forever,” said their new father, Ben Stroud, laughing and hugging Charlie. “We own you.”

“No, I think he owns you,” Molberg said, smiling.

David and Charlie officially were adopted by their foster parents of two years Saturday morning. They were among more than 70 children in Dallas County with adoption hearings scheduled on National Adoption Day at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center.

National Adoption Day expedites adoptions for dozens of families and celebrates the new families created. Dallas Court Appointed Special Advocates coordinated the event with help from Child Protective Services, the juvenile courts, and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Commissioners Court and district clerk’s office.

After Saturday, much will change for David and Charlie. They won’t have to worry about ever returning to a home with no running water or electricity, where they might go without food.

But some things will stay the same. As they have the last two years, they will still drive through Highland Park with the Strouds to see the holiday lights and enjoy cookies and hot chocolate. They’ll continue to learn life lessons, like how to share and to eat their dinner before dessert.

“Fostering really changes you,” Ben Stroud said. “You’re taking care of someone else’s kid. Then you see the need that’s there. You just see the expression on their faces when you give them something small. But when you say ‘you’re going to live with us forever,’ they just get a look in their eyes like they just won the lottery.”

Foster parents first

The Strouds — Ben, 45, and Carol, 44 — have been married for 10 years. After contemplating fertility treatments to start their own family, they decided to become foster parents. In the last nine years, more than 20 children have come through their home. They now have adopted four of those children.

The Strouds adopted Daisy, 7, and Lesley, 4, in the last few years. The girls, outfitted in matching black and white polka dot dresses and red shoes, played ring around the rosy with their brothers Saturday and helped them reach balloons that decorated the courthouse.

David and Charlie — in identical sweater vests, clip-on ties and button-down shirts — joined their sisters in jumping on the boys’ court-appointed volunteer, David Robinson.

Robinson has been in David’s life since he entered the CPS system as a 1-year-old. Along the way, he saw the boy placed with the Strouds for the first time, then saw him move through several homes with his biological family. David entered the system for the second time in 2011, this time with Charlie.

Robinson cried when Carol Stroud handed him photos of all four children with the adoption announcement. It read “Prayed for, hoped for, wished for, wanted … and now officially ours.”

“The thing about this is, Carol and Ben are impacting four children who will have their own families and can show that love and care they had,” Robinson said. “And who knows how many generations they’ll be impacting.”

Already a family

Despite their pasts of neglect, the four children have adjusted to the Strouds’ home. They play — and fight — like brothers and sisters. They like the zoo and bike riding and love being held by their parents, Robinson and their two aunts, who were also at the hearing.

The three oldest know they were adopted by the couple, and Charlie will know soon enough. Their new mother and father value honesty, they said.

“We tell them ‘Your parents love you very much, but it’s very hard to take care of children, and not everyone is ready for them,’” Carol Stroud said.

The Strouds have the CPS case files that detail the unfit homes each child came from.

“When they’re mature enough and ready, we’ll let them see those and make their own decisions,” Carol Stroud said. “We don’t speak poorly about the parents.”

David, in kindergarten, is grateful for a home that will keep him through good or bad, his father said.

Earlier this month, David’s kindergarten teacher, also an adopted child and present at the court hearing, asked her students to write what they’re thankful for. David wrote his family — his new family.

“Everyone says their family, I know,” his mother said. “But this time it’s special.”